Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling, who returns to “The Howard Stern Show” next Thursday for the first time in nearly five years, says he doesn’t know what to expect in Howard Stern’s pen ultimate K-Rock show before jumping to Sirius. “I’m looking forward to it so much – they might be brutal with me, they might not,” Jackie says. “I’m sure if Howard doesn’t strip me up and down his fans will strip him up and down.”

Martling, Stern’s longtime writer/sidekick, left in March 2001. “So many people can’t believe it’s been that long,” he says. “Between reruns and the E! show and them playing my laugh and my sneeze every once in a while, many people aren’t even aware I’m gone – and that’s not even that big of an exaggeration.

“There’s no animosity. It’s show-biz,” he says of his relationship with Stern. “Howard and I have exchanged e-mails. We were supposed to go out to dinner, but I had to go out of town.

“I’ve got some stuff to promote, but that’s not why I’m going on,” he said. “It’s like they’re tearing down Yankee Stadium – and I was a Yankee.”

Is Martling sorry he left?

“I vacillated a little in the beginning. I felt bad about breaking up the group, but I made a few dollars and I moved on,” he says. “I took a deep breath, separated from my wife, quit drinking and moved to the beach. I’m not a different guy, but I got a life.”

And he hasn’t sat still. He does a one-man show every Wednesday at The Laugh Factory, continues his stand-up and acting career and has expanded his JokeLand merchandise line.

“There’s still so much interest,” he says. “As much as they break my chops on the show, they’ve kept me so alive and in everybody’s lives.”